Page 38 of Deadly Alliances

His words lit a fire in my core, making my whole body ache for him. “You really shouldn’t say things like that if you’re not going to deliver,” I groaned, pressing my forehead against his firm chest.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just a miracle none of us has been discovered already. And if we want to keep this place a secret for future meetings, we can’t have loud moans and screams of ecstasy alerting the guards.”

I turned my head up to face him and frowned at him. “Why are you torturing me?”

He snickered. “Okay, I know. Come on, you should go before I lose my resolve and get us both in trouble.”

“Ugh, fine,” I relented.

I stretched up on my toes to steal one last agonizingly brief kiss, then cracked open the door, checking the hall was empty before the two of us crept out of the closet.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

I froze on the spot at the barked accusation from behind me, panic crystalizing my veins.Shit, shit, shit.

Niko grabbed my arm and forcefully turned me around to face the guard that was storming up the hall toward us. “I found this one sneaking around near the kitchen. Said she was trying to get a late night snack. Can you believe that? The nerve of these spoiled kids.”

The guard’s eyes scanned both of us up and down, and it took me a few seconds to realize what Niko was doing and spur myself into playing along.

“What? I was hungry?” I complained with a shrug, hoping that ifhe saw my fear, it only made our story more believable.

Niko jerked me roughly, and I shot him a scowl—did he really have to play the part so dramatically?

“I’m escorting her back to her dorms,” Niko said to the guard with a convincing asshole tone.

The guard looked between us one more time, then finally nodded. “Good work. Carry on.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Niko growled, tugging me along beside him down the hall as the guard continued his patrol in the other direction.

I peered over my shoulder as we rounded the corner, making sure we were out of earshot, then whispered, “Did you really have to be so rough?”

He shot me a playful smirk. “I had to make it convincing.”

“Sure,” I deadpanned, even though my pulse was still racing.

We made it back to the entrance of the avian dorms without another confrontation, and we parted ways without another word for discretion’s sake. We had gotten very lucky. I only hoped that luck remained on our side throughout our little coup because I wasn’t so sure Niko’s act would work a second time.

Chapter 15

Caesar

Fighting the cold was taking every bit of my concentration. And still, I had only managed to raise the temperature inside the tent ten degrees. Turned out not even gryphon weather manipulation could contend with the Washington winter, especially as the sun was setting over the mountain tops to the west.

“I’m f-freezing my t-tits off,” Shea stuttered as she hugged her knees against herself, looking like an adorable ball beside me. “L-literally, they’re g-going to f-fall off.”

I pulled her into my arms and draped myself around her as best I could. “That would be a shame.”

She snickered even as she nuzzled into me.

“Did you make connection yet, Kai?” I called to him behind his wall of tech gear on the other side of the extra-large tent.

“Almost,” Kai mumbled, eyes glued to his screen and fingers tapping like mad. Janette was hovering over his shoulder, watching whatever he was doing with rapt fascination.

“P-please h-h-hurry,” Shea whimpered.

I tried my best to keep a brave face for Shea, but I was getting worried with each passing second as the light beyond our tent continued to dim. We had to make sure we could connect to Heritage Prep before we could fully establish our campsite, and if we didn’t do that soon, we’d be vulnerable to the monsters that lurked only a half-mile away from us.

“Aaaand, got it! I’m in!” Kai exclaimed, fist-pumping through his own vaporized breath cloud.

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